Silk Road forums
Discussion => Newbie discussion => Topic started by: Burning Babylon on June 08, 2013, 02:39 am
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This thread will be about the subject of forming hash into different shapes as efficiently as possible. For those not aware with standard hash in general when it's been compressed into a brick it's very hard to work with and will risk crumbling if one attempts to cut it with too much force without any preparation. Any type of heat makes it significantly easier to work with.
There are a few attributes one should keep in mind for any type of forming:
* Crumbles - how much crumbling will occur when forming?
* Heat - is any heat needed and if so, how much?
* Integrity - is there any risk the product itself might get altered in some way?
* Products - are any type of products needed and if so, which ones?
Our current method of heating up a standard knife and cutting bits off works, but it's fairly evident it's also extremely inefficient as it's fairly inaccurate and creates too much crumbling. We want to be able to shave very long and thin layers off the brick without it breaking up and this is simply impossible with a knife.
The most high tech method I've found through searching seems to be using a styrofoam cutter but I've been a little hesitant getting one as I've seen no one actually knowing what they're talking about in this regard, I'm mostly worried about evaporation risk on the product if there's too much heat. I've been doing a fair amount of research on this subject on various forums and I've seen the same things over over, namely either bad/mediocre advice or pure speculation/guessing. Hopefully someone here has better advice than putting it in a microwave. :)
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I was considering creating a new thread with the title "Heat Pressing Equipment" but since this falls under the scope of this thread I'll post here instead.
So there's quite a lot of equipment out there with the intent of Heat Pressing various types of "pollen", "herbs" etc. which supposedly works fine for Hash as well. Now I have no experience whatsoever with any specific Heat Pressing Equipment out at the market at the moment so I'll just list the ones who seem to have the highest chances of working and then hope someone can post after me with some real experience. :)
Before listing the Equipment I would like to start off with an an interesting article which goes into detail on how pressing will vary depending on quality: http://www.signupfordating.com/informationon/bubble-hash-hashish/pressing-kif-to-hash.html So these are the things to look out for in any Pressing Equipment:
* What kind of quality of the Hash is the Equipment made to work with?
* What kind of shapes will the Equipment produce?
* How easy is it to consistently get the same weight on any specific shape?
* How quickly can one shape be produced?
http://www.amazon.com/s/search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Pollen%20Press
http://www.ebay.com/sch/Grinders-/157025/i.html
From what I could gather one of the better brands is from Space: http://www.spacegrinders.com - however their Pollen Press appears to have some plastic elements to it which makes it very unsuitable for mid-grade Hash as it needs some heat. I stumbled upon a thread which compares a Piecemaker Press ( http://www.piecemaker.at/ ) which is a fairly high end Pollen Press compared to clay extruders which are quite similar: https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=47524 this appears to be true as can be seen from this search: http://www.amazon.com/s/search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=clay%20extruder&sprefix=clay+e%2Caps&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aclay%20extruder
All these presses seem to be aimed for the consumer market and are highly time consuming and inefficient compared to a high tech press. I could not find a single model for sale which was capable of creating any other pattern than a circular one. I found one tutorial for constructing an own press: http://www.uk420.com/boards/index.php?app=tutorials&article=205 I would say this alternative is the most high tech of all the options, but also the most complex as it can't be bought assembled.